El Andalous - Settling In

The Damp Patch in My Bedroom On Returning "Home"

As I said, I’ve decided to take some holiday here, which might seem a bit odd when my entire life is like a vacation. However, I really do intend to write and I am determined to learn Egyptian Arabic, so sooner or later I will have to find myself a work routine of sorts.

This rest period will, in part, be spent settling in. I need to buy furniture, find out how best to work the arrangement of my flat, and do various administrative tasks (tax returns, apply for Sahl Hasheesh residency membership, sort out my Egyptian internet banking).

In the afternoons, I still go to the beach, although the water feels cold now (maybe 21 or 22 degrees?) and, perhaps because the temperature is cooler at nights, I am succumbing to the occasional chocolate treat when I get back from my swim.

One morning, just as I was experimenting with my new steam cleaner, Safi phoned me to ask if I wanted to come round to hers for a coffee. Task avoidance is always a pleasure, so I accepted. Anyway, she ended up kindly volunteering to take me round in her car to some furniture shops in Hurghada so that I could find a sofabed and a bookcase, which were my two immediate priorities.

My expectations of the shops were pretty low, so I was really surprised at the variety available. Of course, you end up having to pay pretty much European prices for the higher quality items, but they were there.

I quizzed Safi about the buses – this is an adventure that I have yet to tackle. The buses are unmarked white minivan type things, each with its own route, and you just hail one when you see it. Safi said she’d bought a load of large items once, got on the bus, and the driver promptly chucked off all the passengers to take her directly to her flat (for an enhanced price, of course). So, these things can be flexible (or you can be exploited), although generally the buses should just stick to the route and you should just pay the set price (around 2 EGP). You need to know the routes. I am too chicken to try this on my own as I’m sure that if I tried to get a bus, it would end up being someone’s private van and I’d be kidnapped or something.

I think we went to every furniture shop in Hurghada! However, I was really pleased to have a chance to see what kind of selection there was and what to expect in terms of prices. After re-measuring my allocated spaces, I’ve now decided what to buy for now and just need to organise myself to go back and get/order them.

It was quite a hot day, so when we got back I dashed to the beach to fit in a swim. Unfortunately, in my hurry, I forgot to take my swimming shoes with me. I didn’t really have time to go back and get them and, since the sea was perfectly clear that day, I decided to risk it without the shoes. My confidence is slowly coming back, although I am extremely unsure of myself whenever I exit the water.

I got in the water OK, if nervously, but hadn’t realised before that the swimming shoes were also protecting the upper part of my foot. When I swam with my feet in the open sea, I felt the swelling on top of my injured foot move in the water as well, a bit as if it were being tugged by a water jet (which in a way it was). It was more uncomfortable than walking! I was determined to swim, but at the same time I was convinced that the pressure of the water on my swollen foot wasn’t doing it much good. So I swam, but not as far as usual.

Another advantage of the swimming shoes that I forgot to mention before is that you don’t need to wash all that sand off your feet. It’s easier to wash the sand off the shoes than from your feet and you don’t get sand all over your sunbed. I will definitely continue to wear the swimming shoes until my foot is completely better.

It’s starting to feel like a community here. In addition to being invited to coffee by Safi a few days ago, on my way back from the beach today, Medhat called out to me from one of the golf buggies. It’s always good to see someone you recognise and he beckoned me to join him on the buggy for a lift back to El Andalous.

Once there, I walked to wash out my swimming shoes under our pool shower, and a German couple who I’d met before Christmas called out to me from their balcony. They had just returned to Sahl Hasheesh that day. It felt like a small village where everyone knows everyone else, where everywhere I turned, there’d be someone I’d know. It felt that I was beginning to establish myself.